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Category: Reform

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The state Democratic Party has launched a radio ad featuring Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling on New York residents to support his 2011-2012 budget proposal and “sweeping new ethics plan” by pressuring the Legislature to act. The party has been increasingly engaged in the budget battle. Last week, Executive Director Charlie King pushed back hard against More »

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Sen. Mike Gianaris was dispatched by the Democrats to push back against Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous’ call for more time on redistricting reform. The Queens Democrat, who has championed an independent redistricting commission since his Assembly days, said he finds the majority’s claims of being too focused on the budget to do anything More »

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ICYMI on last night’s CapTon, here’s New York Conference of Mayors Executive Peter Baynes – a Mandate Relief Redesign Team members – expressing his disappointment with the report issued by that body earlier this week. “Let’s hope this isn’t the end result,” Baynes told me. “I don’t think it’s the end result. I think it’s More »

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State GOP Chairman Ed Cox fired back at his Democratic counterpart’s criticism of the Senate Republicans yesterday, accusing the minority conference of suffering from “amnesia.” In response to state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs’ slam that the Republicans are rivaling IHOP in their flip-flopping on ethics and redistricting reform, Cox said: “In the last two More »

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Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch is heaping praise on the Assembly Democrats – particularly Speaker Sheldon Silver – for signing on to sponsor Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s redistricting reform bill. This comes on the heels of Koch’s visit to Albany Tuesday during which he chided the Senate Republicans and their leader, Dean Skelos, for backing away More »

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Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos just issued a statement insisting he and his 31 felllow Republicans will honor their redistricting reform pledge to former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, but declined to go into detail on how, exactly, he plans to do that. As far as the NY Uprising pledge is concerned, I believe the Senate More »

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Joined by former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, fellow Senate Dems and members of the Assembly majority and minority conferences, Sen. Mike Gianaris lit into the missing Senate Republicans, accusing them (yet again) of renegging on their redistricting reform campaign promise. Koch and good government advocates met earlier with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos who formally More »

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Sen. Mike Gianaris is the latest Senate Democrat to appear in a Web video for the minority’s “keep your promise, pass the pledge” campaign – an effort to pressure the Republicans to make good on their collective agreement with former NYC Mayor Ed Koch during the 2010 campaign to support redistricting reform. The video opens More »

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Today’s Q poll finds that while New Yorkers are generally fans of teachers (50-22), they believe (51-35) the unions that represent these public employees tend to play a negative role in improving the state’s educational system. By an overwhelming majority, (85-12), voters support the repeal of the “last in, first out” rule governing teacher layoffs, More »

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Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb told me on CapTon last night that his staff has identifed some unspecified “flaws” in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s redistricting reform bill, which might spur his conference to propose amendments – or even an entirely new piece of legislation. Kolb, along with Senate Minority Leader John Sampson and Senate Majority Leader More »

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Senate Minority Leader John Sampson is the first out of the box with a statement in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s independent redistricting commission bill, pledging his support and calling for immediate passage of the measure when the Legislature returns to Albany on Feb. 28. (Yes, that’s right, the Legislature is off next week for More »

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In preparation for the March 1 deadline set by his PAC, NY Uprising, for the so-called “heroes” of reform to co-sponsor a redistricting reform bill, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch is retooling his Website to demonstrate which state lawmakers have kept their word to date, and who’s falling short so far. Koch has threatened to More »

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Citizens Union has identified what it calls an “alarming trend” of legislators leaving office due to ethical transgressions – a phenomenon the good government group says needs strong “corrective action.” During the past six years from 2005-2010, 13 legislators left office because of criminal charges or ethical misconduct – more than triple the four legislators More »

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Senate Minority Leader John Sampson took a shot at his GOP counterpart today, accusing Majority Leader Dean Skelos of backtracking on his 2010 campaign pledge to support ethics and redistricting reform. After addressing the New York Association of Counties annual conference at the Desmond, Sampson told reporters Skelos has abandoned his support of requiring moonlighting More »

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo was fairly terse in his response just now when asked for a reaction to the Senate GOP’s move to strip LG Bob Duffy of his right to break a tie in the event of a deadlocked leadership vote in the chamber. “I think they are incorrect in their reading of the law,” More »

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